“Conquered Greece itself conquered its uneducated conquerors, and brought the fine arts to “Latium” –philhellenic poet Horace [Rome learned from the Greeks it has overthrown]

Fabulae praetextae, “plays in the praetexta, the purple-bordered toga” [garment of Roman officials] “Roman conquering the Gauls by Naevuis

Also wrote “comedies in the toga”

Like Andronicus, he wrote both comedies and tragedies [Greek writers only specialized in one or the other]

Quintus Ennuis of Calabria [three hearts], could speak Oscan, Greek and Latin. Important tragedy writers “O Wonderful Poet” exclaims Cicero a century later about Ennius

“Let them hate me so long as they fear me” [Used by later Caesars/ Tyrants] from Lucius Accius of Umbria

Got the point where newer play writers stop making new tragedies/ comedies and reproduced acclaimed masterpieces

Horace’s Art of Poetry: thorough study of Greek models would enable them to create a drama suitable for the educated public

Plays only performed on occasion of public state games or festivals (in religion context)

Writers did not compete with each other in Ancient Rome but with the other forms of entertainment such as chariot racing and gladiatorial contests

ACCOUNT: During the comedy “The Mother in Law”; hordes of fans stormed the theatre on hearing that tightrope-walkers and boxers wear to appear there later, and fought so ruthlessly for the seats that no one could pay attention to the play

NO protection of intellectual property in classical antiquity (royalties were rare)

Only the dramatist made money by selling his play to company of actors or the manager

Popularity = Income

Sileni, half man/goat= GOD OF WINE

Unlike other writers who had to be wealthy before they wrote, dramatists were often poor foreigners, not high social standing

Naevuis was sent to prison for offending noble family in a comedy. Died in exile

Lowest reputation of all= actor (earned his money with his body) Roman saw it as a disgrace

Owner of the actors= “owner of the flock”

When you became an actor, you became infamis (without honour) but still kept roman citizenship

Roscius, only actor of the Republic to move out of the infamis class

Theatre was not allowed to be built. WHY? Maybe due to national pride, theatre was still regarded as being Greek, didn’t want to give impression of being a Greek city

Pompey would build the first theatre

Often done in make shift theatre set ups

Singing and Dancing were often not a large part of tragedy or comedy

MOST important theatrical innovation was the curtain (sank into pit in front of the stage

Scaena= “scene” => audience could tell from sets/ scenery where play was a tragedy or a comedy

Tragedy (BACKDROP= façade of royal palace) Comedy (BACKDROP= two or three citizens’ houses)

HOW PLAYS DIFFERED. NOT by ending but what social class the characters (comedy= ordinary citizens and “mirror” of life. Tragedy= high ranking individuals like princes) wasn’t until the 18th-19th century that this convention was broken by German dramatists

NO WOMEN ACTORS APPEAR IN SERIOUS ROMAN DRAMA

Women parts were done by men

Masks were introduced by Roscius, but Romans missed being able to see changing facial expressions WHY. To hide his face due to his raise in social status to a knight

Clothing was important for dictating form of tragedy and comedy

Plautus/ Terence (20 plays were an important source of comedy) reflections of roman family life

Performance began with brief overture played on the tibia (reed instrument)

Distinction between Roman scenes were not as explicit (didn’t have singing like Greek plays did)

Introduced at the time of Seneca

Composers of such music were often slaves

Homer & Menander [most famous writer of the New Comedy, Athens]= most read Greek writers in Europe

Meander, elegant plays and avoided clique, Tyche, goddess of fortune ruled his comical world. Wrote with great warmth for humanity

Often wrote about “LOVE” [often young boy in love with young girl who is hooker, taken by a man or already married against her will]

“The Boastful Solider” earliest Latin comedy by Plautus

Plautus never wrote a play in which the audience gets to identify with two reunited lovers

Homosexuality was often excluded from Roman plays, but Plautus would joke about it; as well as a range of other smutty jokes not emphasized in the original Greek versions of his remakes

Romans didn’t yearn for an actual portrayal of Greek life, but one they could relish in and mock

Greek remakes by Roman playwrights, slaves were given much more empowerment and wit, never done in plays written originally by Romans

Unlike his predecessors, Platus comedies were almost like musicals, known for his songs, duets, ensembles (on his tomb, it was marked with “unnumbered numbers”, all pitifully lamenting the loss of their great music master.)

Terence, successor of Plautus. Same type of characters. Different portrayal. Much less music, much stricter constructs.

Influx of new Greek education due to conquering of Macedonia, Greek culture lost its exotic appeal

Terence was more like Meander in his play construct and features than Plautus

“he lacked the power of comedy and was only “half” a Menander” –Caesar

GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. Relationship they try to foster between action on stage and the audience. Terence wanted spectators to identify with his characters and feel moved by them

Foreshadows, especially in Hecyra (mother-in-law):

Young husband raped his wife before marriage. Audience discovers this at the SAME time she is pregnant. Only at the end does the young husband discover it was he who raped her while drunk and did not know (found out by the ring, he gave her) [by knowing only as much as the characters, the audience can relate and be sympathetic]

Adelphoe, most famous Terence play, Eunuchus, most performed play

Originally roman plays were done in palliatae [CLASSICAL PERIOD]. After the death of Terence it was done in togata[IMPERIAL PERIOD]

Master of the togata: Afranius [major theme of his work: mens’ love for boys]

Atellan farce: Oscan language, four stock characters, with comic names (i.e Maccus, the fool). Soon was performed in Latin by youth [NOT a disgrace, all actors wore masks] . Are humorous epilogues to tragedy (satyr)

Minimus: Originally done in Greek. Realistic portrayal of everyday life of the lower classes [i.e Adultery] [attractive women, played the female roles]

Minimus was soon written in versus and superseded Atellan farce as the comic epilogue to tragedy

STORY. Syrus challenge all playwrights to improvisation contest. Caesar makes Roman knight Decimus partake. In his performance he laments about losing his knightship for performing in a play “Citizens, forward! We give up our liberty!”, “He needs must fear many whom many fear!”

Caesar gave him back his knighthood [such daring statements were allowed in Minimus]

Pantomime. Most popular stage entertainment in the imperial period. EXPRESSIVE DANCE. Actor was a man, sometimes a woman, dancing solo to poetic text/ different roles. Usually Greek. Started as comic and evolved to more serious and tragic

Pantomimes were very well paid and writers could earn much from selling them plays

Would have to play several characters. Very expressive arms/ legs. Strict dieting

Could fill an entire theatre hall and had many young women admirers

Roman pantomime is not performed by modern dancers

Seneca. 10 tragedies. One of the major 3 roman dramatists [along with Terence and Plautus]

Know little about Seneca background for his play, despite their strong lasting influence on future literature. He didn’t write for the stage, but for the school of rhetoric. Or perhaps to for public recitations

Recitations. Acted as a workshop. Author presented literary piece and got praise or criticism. Author would read their own works and unpublished work was presented

Though Seneca followed many of the Greek protocols (# of acts, chorus, messengers, characterization) women were used for certain parts